She’d tried Chris’s mobile again, but it went straight to voicemail and she left another message, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. Claire focused on slowing down her thoughts. In her mind, she envisaged talking to Chris and what he would say.

The school is probably overreacting.

Whatever it is we will sort it.

It can’t be that bad.

No one has died.

Chris had developed all sorts of platitudes over the years to calm her down when she got overanxious.

Finally, Claire had arrived at the school, just before the official school day ended and as she raced up the steps and into the foyer holding tightly on to Jamie’s hand, they got caught in a maelstrom of uniform-clad teenagers all heading in the opposite direction. While the sixth-form college had its own building on campus, she was sure the headmistress’s office was in the senior school. Extracting herself from the crowds, she double-checked with reception where the headmistress’s office was and was directed to the third floor, fourth door on the left. When she’d finally arrived, she was dismayed to be told by the secretary to take a seat for a few minutes.

Where was Joshua?

Jamie was getting fidgety and she’d been grateful that she’d remembered to grab the iPad on her way out to keep him occupied. Claire kept herself distracted by typing out another message to Chris to let him know she was at the school. After that, there was nothing to do but wait and Claire reverted to a childhood habit where she would imagine the worst-case scenario in order to prepare for it.

Within five minutes, the door to the headmistress’s office had opened and Claire instinctively stood up. She’d watched as a set of parents walked out of the office and tried to place them. Were those parents involved somehow? She didn’t have a chance to pursue the thought as Margaret Chillton stepped into the doorway. Claire didn’t meet her very often and the last time had been at the welcome event for parents whose children were transitioning from senior school to sixth-form college.

‘Mrs Carmichael,’ greeted the headmistress, smoothly. ‘Thank you for coming in at such short notice. Come through.’

Claire turned to her son, checking he was still engrossed in the iPad before turning to Natalie, the school secretary. Without needing to say anything, Natalie had nodded at Claire, confirming that she would watch Jamie while Claire went to talk with her boss.

Claire entered the inner sanctum of academia and the first thing she saw was Joshua’s laptop on the desk. She recognised it from the Manchester United sticker in the top right-hand corner.